Ancient Faith

A recent article in the “Faith & Family” section of the local Saturday newspaper reported on a research study. A sociologist and historian teamed up in Canada to find growing mainline churches by focusing on data from 2003-2013. They defined “growing” and “declining” as an average of two percent or...

The first of January is the beginning of the New Year, and at the same time, the end of the old one. The Romans named this month January based on Janus, one of their pagan deities, the god of all beginning and all ends. He was represented with two heads,...

In the Orthodox Christian Church, there are a good number of things you will see and experience no matter where you go in the world, be it Eastern Europe, Australia, North America, or Africa. One such thing is the Liturgy we celebrate each Sunday (or often daily in monasteries). The...

Both yoga and prayer can be spiritual and physical disciplines, but prayer is more than what I can do with my body and in my mind. Prayer centers me in Jesus Christ by the effort I make to say His name, acknowledge His presence, and believe that He is God...

The year is 1868; the place, Damascus. A self-taught mystic calling himself Abd el Matar left his wife, family, and home to found a group of disciples, the Shazlis, in Damascus. He based the group on a Sufi brotherhood established in the middle ages. About 40 or so people gathered...

Secular spirituality commonly recognizes that healing occurs through one’s body-mind-spirit. Today, many are spiritual, but asked if they are Christian and spiritual, many wouldn’t conclude that they are. To be Christian has come to mean that one knows the Bible and follows Jesus. Of course, this is essential to Christianity,...

“I come to You, O Christ, blind from birth in my spiritual eyes, and call to You in repentance: ‘You are the most radiant Light of those in darkness’.” (Kontakion of the blind man, 6th Sunday of Pascha, 146) The body calls to the soul. When my period is late,...

In kind of an apophatic fit, and instead of ranting about hot-button concerns and other issues that are easy to emphasize as being “important” and even “Urgently of Greatest Importance”, I thought I’d mention a few things that in the past were important, but since I’ve become an Orthodox Christian,...

The future of the ancient Christian Church depends on three things. First, that people experience the mystery of a sacramental life in Christ—that they go to church and feel the peace of the Lord that replaces an unsettled heart. Next, the future of the Church requires that Christians understand, with...

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